Tacrolimus and cyclosporine efficacy in high-risk kidney transplantation

Abstract

The efficacy and safety of tacrolimus- and cyclosporine-based immunosuppressive regimens were compared in a prospectively defined subgroup of kidney transplant recipients from the European, open, multicentre, 2 : 1 randomised, parallel group study. Patients were stratified as high risk for immunological events if they had a panel-reactive antibodies grade greater than 80 % and/or a previous transplant functional for less than 1 year. The primary efficacy variables evaluated were the incidence of acute rejection, steroid usage and patient and graft survival. Safety was assessed based on adverse events and laboratory evaluations. At 1 year, the tacrolimus group (n = 22) had a lower incidence of biopsy-proven acute rejection (31.8 %) and a higher graft survival (86.0 %) than the 11 patients in the cyclosporine group (54.5 % and 72.0 %, respectively). The frequencies of adverse events were similar between the two groups. The tacrolimus regimen appears more beneficial for high risk patients than cyclosporine.